The Kentucky Youth Assembly is a Youth in Government program designed to provide hands-on experience in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government. The overall goal of the conference is to teach the mechanics of government and to impress upon students the importance of active participation to the success of a democracy. Fundamentally KYA exists because Democracy must be learned by each generation. For three days, students play the various roles integral to the operation of a state government, including state representative, senator, member of the press, Supreme Court justice, Governor, and more. Each of these roles has specific and important functions without which the conference could not function. More about specific student responsibilities is available in the section on delegate roles. Over the years new programs have been designed to better serve the conference's role of engaging students in meaningful dialogue about contemporary problems and solutions.

KYA was created in 1946 and still operates on the Constitution created by students in 1949 and modified by successive groups of student officers since then. The program was split into Junior and Senior components in 1960 and has continued to grow, becoming the largest youth in government program of its kind in the nation. Alumni of KYA are active in a variety of posts throughout the state and the country from the Statehouse to the White House and many continue to be passionate advocates of issues they debated when they were delegates.

There are four major avenues of participation in KYA. The first and largest is the Legislature. Students write and debate bills addressing the most important issues facing Kentucky. Several of Kentucky's laws and more on the docket for the next General Assembly were debated and passed by KYA long before they were brought before Kentucky's legislature. The second area is the Supreme Court. On the senior level, teams of advocates, after researching cases, present oral arguments on actual judicial cases before Youth Justices, and answer questions from members of the court, who were advocates themselves the year before. At Junior KYA students rotate in the roles of judge, jury member, and youth advocate in actual trial cases. The third avenue is the premier program, which is a less formal forum for addressing the major issues of the day open to younger participants. It is a good training for first time delegates. The final program, open only to seniors, is the Congressional Program. In the Congressional Program, seniors debate bills that are focused on national issues. In addition to these areas, students may serve in the Media Corps, writing articles for their hometown and school newspapers, or helping produce the conference DVD.